Aruba, June 6, 2012 - As the issue of water scarcity becomes ever more pressing, all consumers and businesses need to take a closer look at their use of water-intensive products

Despite the wettest April since records began, eyebrows were raised at the continuation of Britain's drought alert. The deluge followed the driest March in 59 years, but on the back of a spate of dry winters it has done little to revive the deep, underground aquifers which supply so much of our water.According to Jacob Tompkins, managing director of the NGO Waterwise, the dry, hard ground meant that most of the water simply ran off into rivers, with the soil just below the surface hardly touched. "The current situation highlights the need to take a longer-term view of water management – especially the need to promote wise water usage all year around," he says.

Water scarcity is a global issue and as the world's population grows, so does the demand for water. This demand for water is not just for drinking but for producing water-intensive products too, such as meat, sugar and cotton. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that by 2025 some 2.8 billion people will face water stress or scarcity. As a result both domestic and business users alike are being urged to adopt new approaches to water use, from working together to develop innovative solutions to simply changing the way in which we take water for granted.In particular, companies are being urged to look at their supply chain and make changes if, for instance, they are using water-intensive products or raw materials produced in areas of high water scarcity. It's an approach that, to be effective, calls for co-operation at every level of the chain.